If money were no object

[MinistryOfGame]

10k is a challenge, because I have no doubt there are rich gamers out there who already spend this sort of money on their gaming room. I just need to meet more of them.

100K could probably cover a kick-ass holiday for an entire gaming group, so they could travel to the places of their choice and roleplay with the best ambience possible for their game.

A million dollars could cover 20 people's salaries at 50 grand each for a year. that's 3-4 gaming groups that could roleplay as their full time job for a year.

But no doubt it could also start a charity - perhaps buying roleplaying supplies for disadvantaged schools, and getting interested kids into gaming groups, supporting roleplaying in rural and regional areas and the like.

 

[nerfherder]

Well, my biggest gaming expenses are a) Gencon and b) gas to get to and from the game, so my million would go on a) First Class flights and Embassy Suite Penthouse rooms and b) a Porsche 918 Spyder (718BHP and 74 US MPG).

 

[mkill]

$10,000: Publish my own RPG. It would cover printing and other basics...

$100,000: Publish my own RPG, in a more serious fashion - hire artists, do a large-volume hardcover print run, present at conventions etc.

$1,000,000: Buy a house, invest the rest. It's almost enough to quit my day job and game all day until I kick the bucket. Although I think I'd get tired of that pretty quickly.

 

[Alzrius]

I'd buy one of those super-expensive ultimate gaming table setups. The kind that have all sorts of things like extra counter space for books, slots to store minis, a built-in grid map on the table surface, etc.

I'd also buy customized minis for all of the NPCs and monsters in my game, in whatever proportions they were needed. For that matter, I'd pay someone to build those truly expansive set pieces for where the battles take place - the fake trees and constructed little bridges and to-scale fortresses, etc. Every location would look like it'd been built like a professional diorama.

 

[Lanefan]

I've played at tables like this and I no longer think longer is better. I'd probably do a custom table. A friend of mine and I once did some work and sketched out a table diagram that would put the GM in something like a centrally located position and arranged the players so they were equidistant from the play area and could all see the GM.

A long table is terrible for that.

Agreed absolutely. I'd rather have a big square table.

There used to be a table, something like your proposed design, in the gaming area of WotC's old (and now, sadly, gone) gaming center in Seattle. It was round, about 12 feet across, with the main "table" part a translucent plastic lit from below with a grid marked on it. This surface was about a foot higher than an outer 1' wood-table ring, where players would put their books, sheets, etc.; there was a sloped carpeted "wall" from the ring up to the main table, perfect for standing sheets, books, etc. up against.

The table had a small bite out of it - reminiscent of what a partial eclipse looks like - and that's where the DM would sit. On either side of the 'bite' a small spur table extended backward, so the DM had surface (and storage) on three sides.

There was a projection system for showing images on a nearby blank wall.

The whole thing would hold about 10 players plus a DM, at a rough guess.

I've no idea what you were supposed to use to draw on the grid, or whether it was designed for a projection system of some sort.

As for the original question:

$10K - travel budget for con's, various minor supplies, art.

$100K - hard to say - not enough for a house but enough for the above plus some awesome gaming-weekend parties!

$1M - house with custom gaming area including mini-kitchen, WotC-style table (though maybe not as big), decent sound system, image-projection system (but not onto the playing surface), *lots* of shelf storage for books, minis, etc.

Lan-"hey, we can dream, can't we?"-efan

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

First: Move somewhere I can actually get into a face-to-face game.

$10k: Basically get all the gaming accessories I've never bothered with, or have never been able to afford: a dedicated room, flesh out the book collection (I don't actually need many), a table (nothing fancy), lots of minis (to replace pennies, etc), a dedicated beer fridge.

$100k+: find a partner and go into business, probably producing 3D-POD minis. Or else running a beach bar that is as friendly to gamers as to bikini clad beach bunnies; extra points if the two groups are one and the same.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you had $10,000 that could only be spent on gaming material, what would you want? How would you trick out your game?

What about if you had $100,000? A million?

Obviously nobody's gonna blow a million bucks on your gaming set-up. I'm just curious what people would do if they had to spend the money only on gaming.

At the low end, would you just buy tons of dice, minis, and books? A really fancy overhead projector? A custom game table?

Higher up, do you get a Microsoft Surface so you could have interactive battle maps? Do you hire artists to design the maps, illustrate your NPCs? Compose a soundtrack for the game? Pay people to publish your campaign setting? Fly the whole group to Siberia to set the mood for your Soviet-era Cthulhu horror game?

Me personally, I don't know that spending tons of money would add to my game. I'd just like a quality laptop with some good speakers and a soundtrack budget so I could have background music on cue. I don't use minis or particularly dig battle maps, but I would like to have illustrations of key NPCs, monsters, and such. Maybe commission portraits of the PCs too.

I suppose catered dinners could count as a gaming expense.

What would you do?

For $10k, I'd just fill in the gaps in my collection...and buy the shelves & space I'd need to hold them.

For $100K, I'd get into more exotic stuff, like hand-carved (man-made) corundum dice.

For $1M+, I'm looking to buy a theater and hire acting troupes to represent characters & monsters.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

$10,000: Publish my own RPG. It would cover printing and other basics...

$100,000: Publish my own RPG, in a more serious fashion - hire artists, do a large-volume hardcover print run, present at conventions etc.

$1,000,000: ...

Start my own RPG company, employ a couple big names, like Ari Marmell, and start off a buisness in a big way. Maybe even buy an add spot on TV.

 

[IronWolf]

Let's see, $10k... I think I would complete my Pathfinder collection and put the rest towards finishing off a section of the basement for a game room.

At the $100k amount the game room would be upgraded and include a sweet gaming table and a lot of dwarven forge stuff. And since this is a decent amount of money I would also set the game room up for a good digital experience with a nice projector and such to allow for different DMs to have tools at hand for their method of choice.

Some money would be earmarked for travel funds and posh lodgings at GenCon.

 

[Kzach]

I'd set up a competitor to ENWorld that blatantly favoured 4e. And have loads of bells and whistles for free. And would advertise Wizard's products in side-bars and top-bars and bottom-bars. And I'd ban talk about OD&D. And I'd ban all members of Circus Maximus from joining, 'cause they're always so mean to me. And I'd give away bottles of Mountain Dew, packets of Cheetoes and cut a deal with a pizza chain for discount pizzas for all members.

And then, I'd fly to the moon.